Verse 46
Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual.
The time sequence here applies to people now, their first existence being merely physical, the natural life derived from the great progenitor Adam in whose "image" (Genesis 5:3) all people are born. God made Adam in God's image; but after the fall, it appears that people were not born in God's image (except in a limited sense), but in the image of the fallen ancestor. Hereditary depravity is not in this, but there is certainly some kind of limitation, or tendency.
First ... that which is natural ... "This is a general law; seed-time precedes harvest; and the physical is preparatory for the spiritual."[34]
The last Adam ... Johnson correctly viewed this expression as having been coined by Paul, "to indicate that there can be no third representative man, sinless, and without human father, as were both Christ and Adam.[35] G. Campbell Morgan loved to preach on "Christ, God's Last Word to Man."[36]
[34] Paul W. Marsh, A New Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 412.
[35] S. Lewis Johnson, Jr., op. cit., p. 644.
[36] G. Campbell Morgan, God's Last Word to Man (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1936).
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